Pan's Labyrinth

Synopsis

The movie (trailer) is actually two movies superposed as one! It has two parallel themes running from the beginning to the end. One of the themes is that of the Spanish Civil War between Franco 's Nationalists and the Republicans. The other theme, definitely the more bizarre, is the journey of a young girl Ofelia through a mystical “alternate reality”. Yet there seems to be a semblance of connection – there seems to an underlying philosophy connecting the two. A magic that only a master magician Guillermo del Toro can only conjure.

The time is about 1944, the Republicans are on a retreat and it is the beginning of Generalissimo Francisco Franco’s long fascist regime. The time was dark and was denoted by the stage set in a dark forest in and around a deserted mill.

The movie starts with a preamble. It is the story of a lost princess of the Eternal Underworld. The princess went to the top, got lost and died. Her parents still wait for her to return and seems to set up a mechanism to search for her.

The movie then opens with Ophelia (Ivana Baquero) and his mother Carmen (Ariadna Gil) going to meet Carmen’s new husband Capitan Vidal (Sergi López). On the way the vehicle stops and Ophelia takes a walk and finds an old statue with its missing piece. She puts it together and a cricket comes up and follows her to her new home.

Ophelia comes to an old mill that is going to be her home. This home is in the thick of a forest and also in the thick of an uprising. We all also see the Republicans raising a banner of revolt. So did Ophelia when she questioned her mother’s desire to marry again to this person.

It is here the fairies take Ophelia to a secret labyrinth where she meets a Faun (the original Spanish title is El laberinto del fauno where Faun is the Roman forest spirit). The Faun (Doug Jones) convinces Ophelia that she is the current incarnation of a long dead princess and if she does three tasks by the full moon. Doug Jones also makes another appearance as “the pale man” which was a class by itself.

In the mean time, we see that the Republicans have infiltrated the home of Capitan Vidal with Mercedes (Maribel Verdu) – the housekeeper and the doctor. There was even an attack on the Food Store.

It is here the two parallel movies run. At one side we see the Capitan trying to hunt down the Republicans and the resistance they are putting forward. One side Ofelia trying to complete the three tests and (in the way) realizing the big bad underworld. This fairy tale movie has a somewhat sad but yet still a fairy-tale ending!

Please watch the movie if you have not. It is a Spanish movie with English Subtitles.

A review

Let me concede at first that the movie somewhat moved me. There were three things that were touching: the theme song (or rather the theme hum); the cinematography and Ofelia and her adventures. Notable special mentions are Sergi Lopez as Capitan Vidal, Mirabel Verdu as Mercedes and Doug Jones as the Pale Man (not his Faun act)

The hum is a hypnotic seven note musical theme that essentially captivates the audience – saying “hace mucho, mucho tiempo” i.e. long ago, long time. The music was written by Javier Navarette- a Spanish musical composer. There are some other interesting music in the movie that sets the stage. However, the title song or rather the title hum is the piece de resistance.

The Cinematography was a fairy tale like the movie by Guillermo Navarro. He excelled in both the story-lines – the bad world of Franco’s Spain and the bad underworld of the Faun where monsters roam. The cinematography also drew the essential parallel of the dangerous underworld of monsters & heroine (Ivana Baquero) and the equally dangerous real-world or monsters and heroines (Mirabel Verdu & Ivana Baquero). On the flip side, Navarro portrays the contrast between a magical world of color and mysticism against a grey and shadowy real-world!!

Ofelia is best displayed as a fresh air of care and adventure with an underlying maturity. She displays care in taking care of her mother, even getting help from the Faun and implementing it. The adventure is all over the place starting from her going into the forest near her home not to mention the three tasks she had to do. It is her maturity that is interesting! She questions her mother the reason for the choice of her marriage and questions the Faun during the third task!

Doug Jones has two roles - the Faun and the Pale Man (complete clip - spoiler) . It is the role of a carnivorous monster in the second task. What would be the actions of a man if his eyes were on his palms were excellently portrayed. Lovely act!

Sergi Lopez as Capitan Vidal is the real-in-life monster portraying the terror of Franco’s regime. His act was so defining a reviewer felt that one feels like jumping into the screen and hitting him with something. I laughed when I read it first but felt the truth while seeing his act.

Last but not the least comes Mirabel Verdu as Mercedes – housekeeper and also a Republican sympathizer. She was the spine that held the characters together. She was there helping the Republicans, helping the family, even coming to the aid of Vidal’s son not to mention taking care of Ofelia. She even had an inherent appeal that was mentioned by Vidal – albeit in a nasty way.